Prime
President reassures nation on safety amid ‘Somalia and Kasese mistakes’
President Museveni inspects a parade of newly recruited LDUs at Kaweweta Recruit Training School in Nakaseke District. PHOTO | COURTESY
President Museveni has assured Ugandans that the country is still safe and secure despite the recent attack on UPDF soldiers in Somalia and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attack in Kasese that left over 40 people dead.
The Commander-in Chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) made this assurance on Thursday while addressing newly recruited Local Defence Unit personnel (LDU) at Kaweweta Recruit Training School in Nakaseke District.
“When we get a few mistakes like what happened in Somalia and Kasese, those who don't know war start running around, panicking but I can tell you that the security of Uganda is very secure. There were some mistakes in Somalia, and I was talking to commanders here about them. In Kasese, that part of the country has been peaceful for a long time and those people were quite relaxed although there are still some gaps in intelligence, but all these are easily solvable. Anybody who disturbs us will pay a very big price,” the President asserted.
Kasese attack: Govt hands over 11 bodies to families after DNA tests
During the event, where a total of 9,690 LDUs drawn from Kaweweta Recruit Training School in Nakaseke, Labwordwong Training School in Agago and Olilim Training School in Karamoja were recruited, the President also noted that educated people can make good soldiers and cadres who learn easily because modern warfare has a lot of ‘science’.
“When you hear that some armies do well like the Israeli army, it is because they are educated people. In the 1960s, when they were fighting with the people they were fighting with, you would get educated people fighting with peasants from the other countries and they could not manage because of technology, and quick learning,” Mr Museveni said.
“The only problem is that sometimes the educated become proud and look down upon manual work but otherwise they can make good soldiers and very good cadres in different areas,” he added.
Among the recruits, five have master’s degrees and 700 are undergraduates while 5,000 have A' Level Certificates of Education and 37 stopped at Primary Seven level.
Gen Museveni further cautioned them to take good care of their health by avoiding reckless lifestyles, to remain disciplined and uphold professionalism in the army.
